Parent training skills and methadone maintenance: clinical opportunities and challenges

Children raised in substance abusing families show high rates of behavioura l and emotional problems, in particular oppositional, defiant and non-compl iant behaviours. While a range of social and individual factors correlate w ith poor parenting, it is often the quality of the parent-child relationshi p that mediates the effects of most other risk factors on child development . By addressing this relationship using behavioural family interventions, c hild behaviour problems have been reduced in multiple problem families. How ever, there has been little attempt to systematically evaluate such program s in substance abusing families. It is argued that methadone replacement pr ograms provide a window of opportunity to deliver well-validated parent tra ining programs that enhance the quality of parent-child relations. However, it is likely that such programs would need to be medium to long term and a ddress issues beyond parent child relationships. How such interventions may be delivered and evaluated is discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.